Veteran festival-goers Ron Hansen and small grandsons Carson and Brayden loved watching a pen full of playful goats chase one another. Brayden was thrilled to pet one.

Up the hill by his barn, the Kinder Farm Park Livestock Club’s friendly cow, “Harley”, drew children like a magnet. Danielle Heffner, the 4-H member raising Harley, encouraged them to come close and give him a hug.

Fellow livestock club member, Jennifer Eisinger and her mom Jane did brisk business selling hot chocolate at a nearby stand to raise money to buy feed for Lily, the group’s sow.

Numerous middle school students volunteered at the festival including St. John the Evangelist Catholic School eighth-grade ambassadors Meghan Campbell, Macy Carpenter, and Lauren Smith. The girls welcomed folks into the “Pumpkin and Fall Craft Barn” – a popular stop-off for young moms with small kids.

Inside, tables of would-be crafters were making pumpkins from toilet rolls and orange crepe paper. Three-year-old Charleigh Billing drew a face on her pumpkin with help from her mother Catherine while 1-year-old Kayleen Carter was wide-eyed watching her mother Sarah make hers.

Deeper in the park, sheep “Button” looked fetching with her Halloween witch’s hat cocked jauntily over one ear. A project of 4-H member Selena Thompson, mild-mannered Button is “a great Kinder Farm Park ambassador”.

No harvest festival would be complete without a “Pumpkin Patch” and the one created by a KFP-sponsored girl scout troop, held special allure for 2-year-old Dylan Howard who was picking out his first pumpkin.

Opposite the patch were poultry pens. One contained multiple breeds of chickens little kids could feed. The second was inhabited by white turkeys with black speckled wings and rust colored turkeys with white wings.

People of all ages formed long lines at stands selling funnel cakes, cotton candy, popcorn and donuts. Adult crowd members liked shopping at local vendors’ stands like the Dot-A-Smile boutique with “swirly dresses for little girls, the Princess and the Pea selling pretty headbands and ribbons, and Jean Gray’s crocheted coverlets and placemats.

All day long, individuals were seen carrying arms full of pumpkins or colorful chrysanthemums purchased from Mary Jo Stephens and Susan Fongz of Anne Arundel Farm, Lawn and Garden Center.

“We’re here every year and always busy,” Stephens said. “We’re particularly rushed at closing time when people make us their last stop before leaving the park.”

Adults and offspring alike enjoyed the 1930’s era Kinder Farmhouse Museum which took them back to a time when the farm was in its heyday. They were equally fascinated by the Chesapeake Forge Guild workshop where a fire burned brightly and embers glowed red as blacksmiths Paul Tscherhart, Claire Foster and Jamie Carter used hammer and anvil to form molten metal into tools for the farm.

Park ranger Daniel Jansen deemed the festival’s most popular attractions hayrides on farm wagons pulled by KFP tractors and pony rides. The Dun Pikin Farm ponies had youngsters in the saddle all day with many more kids on the sidelines waiting for rides.

Photos of the people featured in Sharon Lee Tegler's "Around the Park" column

The event’s oddest attraction, a Scarecrow Stuffing workshop in a stable, was popular with families. Elementary school student Addison Ney and mother Catherine energetically stuffed handfuls of straw into pants legs while dad Stephen worked on their scarecrow’s trunk and arms.

Spotted later wheeling the scarecrow out of the park in a wagon, they said it would be joining the scarecrow they made last year on their porch through Halloween.

St. Martin’s groundbreaking for Learning Center

Oct. 10 was a special day for the student body of St. Martin’s-in-the-Field Episcopal Church and School. Not only was a groundbreaking ceremony being held for the school’s new Learning Center but Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, Bishop of Maryland would preside.

A special service in the church sanctuary preceded the groundbreaking and began with a procession of students, teachers, school officials and clergy including Rev. Matthew Hanisian, Rev. Retta Wiley, and Sutton.

Head of School Jamie Hein’s welcome was followed by remarks by board member David Mallery and eighth-grade student Barrett Schultheis.

Sutton delivered a talk about episcopal schools’ (and St. Martin’s) place in the community. The service ended with a brief prayer and procession that exited the sanctuary and encircled the site of the Learning Center.

A crowd formed for Sutton’s official blessing near a line of gold painted shovels awaiting the groundbreaking by assembled clergy, board members, school officials and building implementation committee members.

An artistic rendering of the new center revealed a modernistic rectangular building pleasantly joined to the present-day school. To learn more, visit www.stmartinsmd.org .

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Jackson Dean Nicholson sang the National Anthem at the Arundel High School game Friday in Gambrills. Thousands of people have seen the video a fan posted on Facebook, and country music stations across the country reposted and commented on it.

Jackson Dean Nicholson sang the National Anthem at the Arundel High School game Friday in Gambrills. Thousands of people have seen the video a fan posted on Facebook, and country music stations across the country reposted and commented on it.

CAPTION

Jackson Dean Nicholson sang the National Anthem at the Arundel High School game Friday in Gambrills. Thousands of people have seen the video a fan posted on Facebook, and country music stations across the country reposted and commented on it.

Jackson Dean Nicholson sang the National Anthem at the Arundel High School game Friday in Gambrills. Thousands of people have seen the video a fan posted on Facebook, and country music stations across the country reposted and commented on it.

CAPTION

Midshipman Megan Viohl, from Sevena Park, discusses her assignment as a surface warfare officer after she graduates the Naval Academy.

Midshipman Megan Viohl, from Sevena Park, discusses her assignment as a surface warfare officer after she graduates the Naval Academy.

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Denise Robinson, of Odenton, searches for the grave of William H Whittington, who was the first person from Anne Arundel County to die during World War 1, while training at the Army's Camp McClellan in Alabama.

Denise Robinson, of Odenton, searches for the grave of William H Whittington, who was the first person from Anne Arundel County to die during World War 1, while training at the Army's Camp McClellan in Alabama.

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Larry Lee Thomas, Apostle/Bishop & Senior Pastor at Empowering Believers Church of The Apostolic Faith, speaks about recent acts of racism and how he hopes the community will come together to stop it. He spoke before The United Black Clergy of Anne Arundel County meeting Friday evening at the Mount Zion – Magothy United Methodist Church regarding continuing racist incidents at Chesapeake High School.

Larry Lee Thomas, Apostle/Bishop & Senior Pastor at Empowering Believers Church of The Apostolic Faith, speaks about recent acts of racism and how he hopes the community will come together to stop it. He spoke before The United Black Clergy of Anne Arundel County meeting Friday evening at the Mount Zion – Magothy United Methodist Church regarding continuing racist incidents at Chesapeake High School.